Delta Airlines
 

I arrived in Atlanta, GA. had both bags went through customs. You have to give them back your bag for it to go to the baggage downstairs. Well it never made it. My claim is 4 weeks old. They don't talk to you. They will answer your email. But all you get " If there is a problem the Claims Manger will contact you otherwise it takes 8 weeks for them to make a decision" This is crazy. They have lost a customer.

While I'm very sorry that you are having difficulty getting your bags back, if you arrived in Atlanta and your final destination was Atlanta then you should have exited the customs area with your bags in tow. The carousel you placed your bags on is for those connecting to other flight in Atlanta. My guess is that your bags are still in Atlanta. Either that or they could have been sent back to your origin, wherever that was.

Anyway it seems that you should share some of the blame for not paying attention and placing your bags where they didn't belong in the first place. Good luck.

I too am sorry that you have yet to get you bags, but I must point out that PHX is incorrect. When you arrive in ATL from an international destination, you claim your bags, go thru customs, then you have to choose which belt to put them back on to. You can put them on the local belt, or the connection belt. Since your final destination was ATL, you should have placed them on the local belt. That system then sends the bags from concourse E to concourse T in the baggage claim area. It is a super pain in the rear, but basically you have to claim your bags twice. Because of the set-up of the airport, when you clear customs you have to go thru a TSA security check point just like the one at check in in order to gain access to the secure area of the terminals and trains. (I have hesitantly sent many many bottles of liquor in my bag from E to T because I can't carry liquid thru the security checkpoint.) That is why you are not allowed to take your bags with you. I hope this is making sense to anyone who hasn't flown into ATL from an international destination. Delta is currently working to resolve this by building a new concourse F that will have a dedicated train that will bypass all the other concourses and will take you directly to the exit. That way you will be able to take your luggage directly from customs to your car/train/bus.

When you clear customs in ATL, the only way out of there is on the train system, which is part of the secured area, so you cannot take you checked luggage with you from customs, unless there is nothing inside that would be taboo in the concourse.

That's kind of unreal that the bag got lost in the belt system. Even if it was put on the wrong belt, the guys downstairs should have caught this.

Baggage
 

In Atlanta coming in from an International flight you have to give it the bags back to the people in one area. They give you no choice. I have been on 10 trips and this is the first time this has happen. Think it is the times. The policy made Delta Baggage look over the entire airport and the bag it not there.

thanks